As reflected in the patent literature, polyolefins have been widely used in a variety of applications due to their low cost and ease of manipulation.
However, certain properties such as paintability, printability, dimensional stability, biodegradability and resistance to various solvents expose deficiencies that may exist in some products manufactured from polyolefins.
For example, it is often desirable to be able to apply ink to a polyolefin film in a printing process (i.e., printability). Water based inking systems generally require a substrate surface tension of greater than about 36 dyne/cm2, more typically in the range of from about 42 to about 45 dyne/cm2 to provide acceptable adhesion and wetout. However, conventional polyolefin films may display a surface tension that is less than the surface tension required for adequate printability.
Therefore, a need exists to develop polyolefins having enhanced printability, along with other properties.